Injured baby's mother denies shifting blame

A 23-year-old man is on trial for attempted murder and causing grievous bodily harm after his seven-week-old son was left with a fractured skull and severe brain damage following an incident in January.

Prosecution barristers claim the man tried to kill his own child because the baby was an "inconvenience" which arose from a brief affair he had with a girl he met on the Internet.

But yesterday lawyers representing the man accused the teenage mother of orchestrating a "set-up".

A jury a Sheffield Crown Court was shown a recorded interview in which the mother, who is from the Doncaster area, was questioned by police the day after her son was injured.

During it she said the father had visited her at her grandparents' house and she left the baby with him in an upstairs bedroom after he asked for a drink.

She said she returned to find the 23-year-old on the stairs with the child saying, "it won't stop crying". It is alleged he then dropped the child and the teenager caught him.

Prosecutors say the man took the opportunity to hit the child's head on a wall while alone with him and then dropped him on the stairs in an attempt to hide what he had done.

But the father claimed to police the baby had been abused and he was being blamed.

Neither the parents or the child can be identified for legal reasons. The trial continues.